abstract: The main objective of this project was to create a framework for holistic ideation and investigate the technical issues involved in its implementation. In previous research, logical ideation methods were explored, ideation states were identified, and tentative set of ideation blocks with strategies were incorporated in an interactive software testbed. As a subsequent study, in this research, intuitive methods and their strategies were investigated and characterized, a framework to organize the components of ideation (both logical and intuitive) was devised, and different ideation methods were implemented based on the framework. One of the major contributions of this research is the method by which information passes between different ideation methods. Another important part of the research is that a framework to organize ideas found by different methods. The intuitive ideation strategies added to the holistic test bed are reframing, restructuring, random connection, force connection, and analogical reasoning. A computer tool facilitating holistic ideation was developed. This framework can also be used as a research tool to collect large amounts of data from designers about their choice of ideation strategies, and assessment of their effectiveness. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2012

Esta pesquisa caracteriza-se como um estudo de análise gráfico-conceitual acerca da importância de processos de ação criadora referenciáveis à questão do movimento por meio de formas de representação e de exploração do espaço e do tempo na Arquitetura. Aborda a questão da representação na linguagem arquitetônica, entendida como meio de relação entre tempo e espaço. Investiga como o movimento sendo uma possível síntese desta equação pode ser percebido, representado e interpretado na geração de um projeto arquitetônico. Reflete sobre a mudança de paradigmas que caracterizam a transição dos meios de representação e identifica as expressões de movimento na linguagem arquitetônica, assim como novos parâmetros de raciocínio projetual por meio da análise de projetos e métodos projetivos analógicos e digitais de arquitetos, designers e artistas. Contextualiza as manifestações de clara relação da Arquitetura com a compreensão do espaço, tempo e movimento e propõe-se como base de reflexão comparativa entre a modernidade e a contemporaneidade. / This research is characterized as a study of graphconceptual analysis concerning to the importance of processes of creative action related to the subject of the movement by means of representation forms and exploration of space and time in the Architecture. It introduces the representation in the architectural language, understood as the relationship between time and space. It investigates how the movement - being a possible synthesis of this equation - can be noticed, represented and interpreted in the generation of an architectural project. The dissertation contemplates the change of paradigms which characterize the transition of the representational methods, from analogical to digital movement expressions in the architectural language, as well as new parameters of projetual reasoning by means of the analysis of projects of architects, designers and artists. It contextualizes the manifestations of clear relationships in Architecture within the understanding of space, time and movement as a basis of comparative reflection between the modernity and the contemporaneity.

The Duke of Uncertainty - Aspects of Professional Skillis a dissertation whose title is a literary metaphor designedto draw attention to encounters with unforeseen problems anddilemmas at work. The first part of the dissertation presents the skill andtechnology tradition that has developed over the last twentyyears through explorative case studies. These have covered theskills of various occupational groups, such as processoperators in the paper-and-pulp and chemicals industries,managers and systems engineers working on real timeapplications in specialized knowledge intensive firms as wellas doctors and nurses. The theoretical perspective is the epistemology of skillfocusing on the phenomenon of tacit knowledge. This has itsroots in Wittgenstein's philosophy of language as developed bythe philosophers Allan Janik and Kjell S. Johannessen. The methodological framework develops indirect analogicalthinking which is a prerequisite for knowledge based onexperience, through exemplification. The empirical part of the work shows knowledge offamiliarity among members of an occupational group with lowformal training but extensive practical experience, namelyassistant nurses. A comparative analysis is undertaken inrelation to previous case studies in the field of skill andtechnology aimed at occupational groups with high formaleducational qualifications. A particular aspect to which attention is drawn is therhythm in work that unites occupational groups regardless ofeducational background. Occupational skill is treated as acapacity developed to find rhythm in action when confrontedwith situations that are hard to handle. The dissertationconsiders aspects that can be tried out in other occupationalarenas and paves the way for identifying phenomena in workinglife that hinder the development of rhythm in work. The dissertation contributes to the setting-up ofundergraduate-level training for groups of people who have notpreviously had access to higher education, and aims tointroduce new aspects into the development of analoguethinking. Key words: practical versus theoretical knowledge, skillof epistemology, tacit knowledge, comparative case study,literary metaphor, analogical thinking, indirect method,occupational training. / <p>NR 20140805</p>

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Les grammaires de construction postulent l’émergence progressive des structures du langage via l’utilisation de processus cognitifs généraux. Les hypothèses théoriques qui en émanent suggèrent que la complexité et la structure des formes morphosyntaxiques ne peuvent s’expliquer que dans une perspective constructiviste, où l’enfant développe ses nouvelles formes en complexifiant et en généralisant ses propres productions antérieures. Ces hypothèses ont été éprouvées auprès de populations présentant un développement typique du langage (DTL) mais ont peu fait l’objet d’une mise en application auprès d’enfants avec troubles spécifiques du langage (TSL). Or, ces théories offrent de nouvelles perspectives théoriques permettant de mieux appréhender leurs difficultés langagières. Ces enfants présentent un manque de productivité syntaxique ainsi qu’une plus grande dépendance à l’input linguistique, allant dans le sens d’un manque de généralisation des schémas de construction. Nous suggérons que, contrairement aux enfants avec DTL, l’abstraction des schémas de construction des enfants avec TSL serait entravée en raison d’un mécanisme de généralisation qui se mettrait en place plus lentement. Ce travail de thèse a pour objectif de tester cette hypothèse chez les enfants avec TSL, en s’intéressant plus particulièrement au rôle du mapping analogique. Les résultats obtenus sont prometteurs et compatibles avec cette hypothèse. Si l’étude du mapping analogique comme facteur à l’origine des difficultés des enfants avec TSL est particulièrement séduisante, de nombreuses pistes restent à explorer pour appuyer davantage notre hypothèse. / Construction grammars argue that language structures progressively emerge thanks to the use of general cognitive processes. Theoretical hypotheses suggest that complexity and structure of morphosyntactic forms can only be explained in a constructivist perspective in which children develop their new forms by making more complex and generalizing their own prior utterances. These hypotheses have been already tested with children with typical language development (TLD) but few studies were interested in children with specific language impairment (SLI). These hypotheses give new interesting theoretical perspectives for apprehending their language disorders better. Children with SLI present a lack of syntactic productivity and a more important input dependency. These observations are compatible with the hypothesis of a lack of generalization of construction schemas. Consequently, the children’s abstraction of construction schemas would be slowed down compared to children with TLD’s abstraction. The current doctoral thesis studies the hypothesis of a lack of generalization in children with SLI by analyzing more particularly the role of analogical mapping. The results obtained are promising and in agreement with our hypothesis. If studies about the role of analogical mapping as a factor explaining the disorders in children with SLI are attractive, other considerations have still to be explored for strengthening our hypotheses.

Le modèle du triple code a été proposé par Dehaene (1992 ; Dehaene & Cohen, 2000)sur la base d’arguments neuro-anatomiques et neuropsychologiques pour rendre compte du traitement des nombres et des quantités. Le modèle postule l’existence de trois types de représentations correspondant chacune à un format de l’information numérique : une représentation analogique approximative préverbale, et deux représentations symboliques,l’une verbale, l’autre arabe. Si des études ont pu être mettre en évidence les caractéristiques de la dimension analogique tant chez le nouveau-né que chez l’adulte, la question de la« greffe » chez l’enfant des représentations symboliques sur la représentation analogique reste posée. L’objectif de cette thèse est de rechercher en suivant le développement comment s’effectue cette mise en relation. Nous avons élaboré un ensemble d’épreuves de comparaisons testant chacune une des représentations du modèle du triple code afin de déterminer chez des enfants dès 4 ans des indices de cette mise en relation. Si le lien entre dimensions analogique et symbolique est présent, un effet de rapport, « signature » de ce lien est attendu tant avec les comparaisons analogiques que symboliques. Cinq expérimentations ont été menées : avec des adultes, des enfants de 4 et 5 ans tout-venant, des enfants prématurés et des enfants atteints du syndrome de Down. Les résultats montrent que, dans toutes les populations, l’effet de rapport est présent avec la dimension analogique. Ensuite,entre 4 et 5 ans, avec l’acquisition du code verbal et indo-arabe la représentation symbolique change de nature. Enfin, les populations qui présentent des troubles du traitement du nombre sont affectées essentiellement sur la dimension verbale. Ces résultats sont discutés en regard de deux conceptions alternatives. / The triple code model was proposed by Dehaene (1992 ; Dehaene & Cohen, 2000) onthe basis of neuro anatomical and neuropsychological arguments in order to account for number and quantity processing. This model postulates the existence of three types of representations, a preverbal and approximate analogical representation, and an Arabic and verbal symbolic representations. If researchers have extendedly studied the characteristics of the analogic dimension in the new born as well as the grown up, the issue of the « graft » ofsymbolic representations for the child on analogical representation remains an open debate inthe current literature. The aim of this thesis is to explore how this connection operates with regard to development. We set out a series of comparing tests to try each representation of the triple code model in order to find signs of this connection in children as young as four years old. If a relation ship between the analogical and symbolical dimensions is found then, asignature of this connection is expected to be found in the analogical comparisons as well as in the symbolical. Five different experiments were carried out on adults and four-five year-oldchildren from all walks of life, including prematured and Down Syndrom children. The results show that in all the samples, a ratio effect is found in the analogical dimension. Then between four and five years old, the acquisition of the Indo Arabic and verbal code, the nature of the symbolic representation changes. Finally, populations showing troubles with numbers are mainly affected on the verbal dimension. These results are assessed with regard to two alternative conceptions.

Design is hard and needs to be supported by software. One of the ways software can support designers is by providing analogical reasoning. To make analogical reasoning work well, the software makers need to know how to create a knowledge representation that will facilitate the kind of analogies that the designers want. This thesis will inform software makers by experimenting with two kinds of knowledge representations, called device-centric (DC) and environment-centric (EC), and to try to determine the relative benefits of using either one of them for analogical matching. We performed computational experiments, using Structure Mapping Engine for matching, to determine the quantity and quality of analogical matches that are produced when the representation is varied. We conducted a limited human experiment, using questionnaires and repertory grids, to determine if any of the computational results were novel, and to determine if the human similarity ratings between devices correlated with the computer results. We show that design software should use DC representations to produce a few focused matches which have high average weight. It should use EC representations to produce many matches some of high weight and some of low weight. Based on our human experiment, design software can use either DC or EC representations to produce novel matches. Our experiments also show that human matches correlate most strongly with a combined DC and EC representation and that their similarity reasons are more EC than DC. This suggests that designers tend to think more in EC terms than in DC terms.

This thesis seeks to explicate, and develop an appropriate method for the elucidation of, the antecedents to the theology of William Blake in the writings of the seventeenth-century divine, Peter Sterry (1613-1672). While the radical religious scene of the English Revolution has long been recognised as offering important antecedents to Blake's thought, Sterry is a figure who has largely been overlooked. The exception to this is an essay, published in 1929, in which Vivian de Sola Pinto asserted the existence of 'startling affinities' between their ideas. Pinto's study was, however, limited by its failure to consider, firstly, the implications of its findings for our general understanding of the antecedents to Blake's thought in the seventeenth century and, secondly, the insight Sterry's writings may be able to offer into Blake's theological vision. These are the very questions at the heart of this dissertation. By addressing them, it seeks to shed new light on the nature of Blake's theology and its anticipations in earlier English thought. Given the lack of evidence that Blake read Sterry, and the limited effectiveness of the 'genealogical' method when it comes to Blake, it pioneers a bespoke 'analogical' method for the exploration of these issues. It proposes that Sterry is actually closer to the intellectual milieu of Commonwealth radicalism than one might expect and that his writings function effectively as a lens through which it is possible to discern how Blake consistently uses 'dualistic' language and imagery in an ethical and epistemological sense. The first finding suggests that the established view of the radical religious environment in Blake studies needs to be extended; the second challenges the widespread perception that Blake's thought is ultimately dualistic in an ontological sense, thus contributing to the elucidation of a perennial problem for Blake scholarship. Together, they underline Sterry's importance as a neglected theological precursor to the thought of William Blake.

Prompting students to self-explain during problem solving has proven to be an effective instructional strategy across many domains. However, despite being called “domain general”, very little work has been done in areas outside of math and science. In this dissertation, I investigate whether the self-explanation effect holds when applied in an inherently different type of domain, second language grammar learning. Through a series of in vivo experiments, I tested the effects of using prompted self-explanation to help adult English language learners acquire the English article system (e.g., teaching students the difference between “I saw a dog” versus “I was the dog”). In the pilot study, I explored different modalities of self-explanation (free-form versus menu-based), and in Study 1, I looked at transfer effects between practice and self-explanation. In the studies that followed, I added an additional deep processing manipulation (Study 2: analogical comparisons) and a strategy designed to increase the rate of practice and information processing (Study 3: worked example study). Finally, in Study 4, I built and evaluated an adaptive self-explanation tutor that prompted students to self-explain only when estimates of prior knowledge were low. Across all studies, results show that self-explanation is an effective instructional strategy in that it leads to significant pre- to post-test learning gains, but it is inefficient compared to tutored practice. In addition to learning gains, I compared learning process data and found that both self-explanation and practice lead to similar patterns of learning and there was no evidence in support of individual differences. This work makes contributions to learning sciences, second language acquisition (SLA), and tutoring system communities. It contributes to learning sciences by demonstrating boundary conditions of the self-explanation effect and cautioning against broad generalizations for instructional strategies, suggesting instead that strategies should be aligned to target knowledge. This work contributes to second language acquisition theory by demonstrating the effectiveness of computer-based tutoring systems for second language grammar learning and providing data that supports the benefits of explicit instruction. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the relative effectiveness of a broad spectrum of explicit learning conditions. Finally, this work makes contributions to tutoring systems research by demonstrating a process for data-driven and experiment-driven tutor design that has lead to significant learning gains and consistent adoption in real classrooms.